Golden Hour course hits dead end

KOCHI: The district administration’s decision to make the Golden Hour course compulsory for all school bus drivers from the next academic year seems to have hit a dead end. The voluminous numbers of school bus drivers in the district, coupled with the limited number of training hours available, are the main constraints leading to the failure of the implementation of the project. The project was undertaken to provide training in the handling of emergency situations for drivers. Under the project, the drivers would be trained by doctors on first aid, on providing basic life support and handling stress through theoretical sessions and hands-on training. Though the project was targetted at all the drivers in the district, the first phase included only school bus drivers.As per the decision taken by the District Administration in December last year, the drivers who have cleared the course would be given a certificate and an identity card. Only then would they be allowed to drive school buses.“The probability of completing the training of all the school bus drivers by May is low. Many drivers are enrolling under the project after the announcement was made. But in each batch, there is a specific number of persons who can be included. Besides, the Educational Department and the managements of several schools have not been able to furnish us with the details of the project. Here, the problem is that many of the drivers who pick up the students are not employed by the schools,” said a Health Department official.But Collector P I Sheik Pareeth said that all efforts are being made to complete the project on time. “We are calling a meeting of the school managements to discuss the issue. Already we have trained several drivers. The project should be completed before June and the clearing of the tests made compulsory by June,” he said.